Hi. I'm Mark Thiessen. I love technology, jiu-jitsu, and coffee. My opinions change over time.
I'm passionate about working with teams to learn to continuously deliver software and help ensure the valuable things are delivered incrementally and measured and improved.
If a Project is Going Well, Does it Matter if it's Agile?
October 03, 2020I recently watched a talk where a 75% complete project was held up as an example of a software project going well, something we could all…
Software is Meant to Evolve
December 02, 2014Software is meant to evolve. As a consultant, I see many organizations that don’t fully consider this when planning and building systems…
Skills Aren't Binary
October 22, 2014Skills aren’t binary. You don’t just learn how to do something. You aren’t either an expert or completely ignorant. There are many levels to…
Is an Overemphasis on Tasks a Barrier to Quality?
June 07, 2014We love to plan when we build software. We create requirements and mock-ups. We create requirement documents, use cases and user stories. We…
Saving the World with Software
January 03, 2014There’s been an increased focus on user experience in the last few years, bringing with it an avalanche of related buzzwords. Everyone’s…
Technology is an Amplifier
November 26, 2013– Steve Jobs Hmmmm. Technology should be employed to amplify ability, hopefully with humans still at the centre.. So far, we’ve been granted…
Customer-First Development
October 03, 2013Customer first development
Do Hard Things
April 25, 2013I’m a big fan of the idea of constantly improving your craft. As software developers, we should be learning new tools, languages, methods…
SCNA 2012
November 14, 2012I was lucky enough to attend the SCNA (Software Craftsmanship North America) conference this last weekend in Chicago. Overall, it was a…
Developer Superstition
April 02, 2012Maybe you’ve heard the old “reboot your machine and see if it works”. I know I have… many times. Don’t Try not to do this. To me this is…